Pilloting: now there is a question. Extreme answer followed by a realistic one. CAP is 90hrs and minimum credit per day is 4:30 so if you are junior doing the crap nobody else wants then you will see 10 days off. If your senior and picking exactly what you want (JSS supposedly will allow this with some built in safe guards designed by BALPA to ensure fairness ��....yeah right) you could reach CAP in about 10-12 days. Ok the reality is probably somewhere in the middle. 12 days off if your junior and perhaps 15 days off if your senior and you bid for max credit trips.

Thats SH. Cannot really comment on LH too much. But some working days LH start at 8 or 9 in the evening or end at 6-7 in the morning so it can throw it out a bit. It’s like a night DME on SH. I don’t view it as two days work but officially it is

Short haul junior trash - Above CAP and 13 days off in August and only one evening where I won’t be having dinner at home with my family. Pretty standard month, definitely can’t complain about lifestyle. (Although I probably will)

Pay could be better and I’ve got high hopes for the new BACC, feel like the tide has turned and we’ve got great expectations of what can be achieved if we’re prepared to get behind them.

Gatwick I guess?

Heathrow. Clean slate after JSS comes in though, as far as lifestyle goes watch this space I guess?

I wouldn’t worry too much about JSS just yet. I don’t think we’re even close to its implementation right now. Not enough pilots, software issues plus the elephant in the room of the BMI zippering issue which isn’t even close to getting resolved. I honestly wouldn’t be at all surprised if we’re sat here this time next year still using bidline.

Yep.....

As for JSS, much as many would like to see it’s introduction delayed I suspect the quite reasonable gripes from the troops won’t change a thing. I hope I am wrong but I suspect once recruitment and training have got enough bods on the line it will be introduced faster than a rat up a drainpipe....and then to borrow a phrase, it’s “posh blindlines” for everybody.

Same condition. 3 weeks no news yet. 2nd day at the end of June.

I hear you, Wiggy but the BMI zippering issue needs to be resolved first. The two parties are absolutely miles apart at the moment, there no easy solution that’s going to satisfy both parties and I would suspect it ain’t going to get resolved any time soon. Even without zippering of BMI Pilots we already have strong suspicions (if not confirmation) JSS isn’t going to come in by the end of the year because of the difficulties of introducing around Christmas. By the time they get enough bods on the line that’s gonna be edging towards summer 2019 and the company will again be nervous around introducing it at a time that potentially compromises rostering over the summer (as they were this time around). It’s not necessarily hope over expectation.

Nice! the junior BMI guys get stuffed. That said even the senior ones too. Join at the bottom and stay at the bottom for your entire career. No progression from a rostering stand point. No choice, low to no roster satisfaction and all enforced by BALPA. I even took this up with AB and all I got was a shrug of the shoulders.

I won't pretend that I have followed the zipper debate in minute detail but I do know it was a source of great angst (putting it politely) among many long served BA shorthaulers so there are obviously two sides to that debate. I got the impression from AB's e-mail that running with a dual list wasn't exactly something the company wanted to do and it was something that was going to be subject to continued negotiation...

More interesting (to me anyhow) is the fact that management are willing to back down slightly/temporarily on this issue, which was a blocker to introducing the new rostering system, and accept the hassle of two lists, all in order to get rid of Bidline and get JSS up and running quickly....you'd almost think management think there is something in it for them :E

Steady on bex... all EMBA as it were have had the choice from day 1 to go to LH in the RHS, continue in the LHS or take up until recently out of seniority protected commands. In fact all the Commands this & last year were protected... only 2016 saw it drop to & past their seniority. Not bad considering they joined BA in 2012 having commands & RHS LH since day one, whilst others senior to them had to sit out their 5 year engagement freeze. But I like others didn’t complain as it was the deal that was signed. If they’re junior & in the bubble that’s their choice! Could have gone to LH & be nearly 50% for example on the jumbo.... & if I’m not mistaken it was the bmi list that chose to turn down the last zipper solution not the BA list.... Not a bmi bash but let’s state the facts, most feel they’ve done very well. It’s the same for BA guys, was on the bus the other day & a junior BA SH skipper was complaining he’d gone down 3 or 4% & it wasn’t fair.... we’ll could have gone to LH.... his choice, you only have to be junior once!

Anyway back to the thread... good luck to those applying.

Bex88.... No choice, low to no roster satisfaction and all enforced by BALPA. I even took this up with AB and all I got was a shrug of the shoulders.

I think you will find Bex88, Balpa have done exactly what they are there to do...consult members, ballot, and when no agreement was reached escalate this as a failure to agree with the company.

Bigger battles ahead, such as the up coming pay negotiations, which will have a far greater effect on the careers and lives of all the pilots within BA.

Maybe this is why Flt Ops capitutaled on it??

I couldn’t agree with you more Tay... they should be in the BA list, especially if they want to be! I’m sure I’ve read somewhere some pony about MPE to maintain circa 145.... it’s all political & the initials IG I bet have all to do with it!

Good luck to those applying.

Makes no difference to you Kendrick, it only affects the ex BMI captains and all of them are senior to you wherever they end up anyway. This thread is historically known for thread drift (guilty in that respect myself) so don’t worry too much about it.

Personally I think JSS will be better for Short Haul (virtually no one wants a mixture of daytips and tours which is all 90% of the Triplines are, although it remains to be seen how effectively you can build a roster consisting of either day trips or tours and a lot will depend on seniority/knowing the correct JSS tweaks). I suspect for Long Haul it will be a !!!!show compared to Bidline, but who knows?

Bidline: essentially the company publish the Trip Lines (each individual line is a roster) 6 weeks or so in advance of the month in question. The pilot workforce then bids for these lines of work in seniority order. So in theory the most senior pilot in the seat in question is effectively writing his own roster as he knows exactly what trips he will be doing and also the days off. Pilots will bid for lines based on weekends off or destinations or, in the case of the most senior, both of these variables hence the notion of writing your own roster. There are only so many trip lines, those who don’t have the required seniority for any of their choices of lines will have their roster written for them by the company with the reconstituted trips of what is left over (blind line).

JSS: No real control whatsoever. You’re just expressing preferences for days off or particular types of trips/destinations but there is no guarantee that you will get any of what you want. It is not anywhere near as transparent as bidline. Still very seniority driven but there will also be inhibitors in place to stop the most senior just going to Cape Town (or insert your own desirable destination) four times a month. There are very real fears that inserting all of these inhibitors will end up in the programme being corrupted away from its original design, see the case of Carmen down in Gatwick where, in an attempt to please everybody, they have ended up with a programme that pleases nobody. That’s why Wiggy and others (including myself) have just described it as posh blindlines as even the most senior will have absolutely no idea what their roster will contain until the day of publication.

So whats new in that, you may perfectly reasonably ask if you’re coming from another airline. Trouble is it’s a severely retrograde step in being able to do what you want when you want and have control over the whole process, something that has been a unique selling point of BA for many years but is about to be a thing of the past.

Without a reference, eg, “compared to Ryanair, what are the benefits,” the question is meaningless.

If if you have no interest in long haul, think you’ll do a lot of upper class travel, don’t want to wear the stupid hat and you have other options, hop out of the pool, son, here’s your towel. Seriously, you’ll be miserable here.

As for the “ doesn’t cut it for me” comment... I’m pretty sure our community will be alright without you.

Good luck with with your career, sir.

Cheers

Buter

Can never understand why you would go through the considerable time and effort of applying if you need someone else to convince you. Not to mention the waste of a interview/sim slot for someone who actually is interested in joining.

They had 1000 applicants in a 2 week recruiting window so they can probably struggle on without you.

Morning all, Firstly may I commend RexB’s descriptions of both Bidline and JSS to the house....

Paddington..

Unless you have a burning desire to do shorthaul out of London I can’t see why BA would be of interest, though TBF I don’t live the BA shorthaul dream...

As for travelling in Premium cabins.... I’m not sure how the recruiters / advertising sells that benefit but you have a very limited number of those particular tickets and despite everything there are no guarantees about getting on a flight and where you will end up seated (and it can get really difficult if you are travelling as a family ).

Many a staff traveller with First or Club entitlement has ended up on a jumpseat......

Hello everyone, thanks for all of those who post interesting info for the ones of us still in the application process. I’ve been waiting for. sim dates for a month already after receiving a mail telling me I had passed day 2. Anyone in the same condition. Anyone knows if it’s going to be 767 or 747. New to the forum so cannot receive any PM it seems. Any info would be very appreciated. Thanks.

Still Carmen AFAIK.

Hello, may I ask if people going through the interview stage received technical questions or was it just competency based questioning? Thank you in advance��

Hi Paddington,

Personally if you have no interest in LH why join what is predominately a LH airline. The grief of doing multiple sectors out of Heathrow on a day in day out basis for a a 40+ year career doesn’t make sense. If you want to be home every night you would be much better off working for an airline outside London where the cost of housing is more reasonable, the commute quicker, time to command generally quicker with associated better pay.

However, the reasons I enjoy LH is the opportunities to visit places that I would never visit on holiday. To take my son with me to Chile to see the penguins in the Tiera Del Fuego or my family to Tokyo after sector swapping to turn a 4 day trip into a 6 day trip. To go whale watching on a 4 day San Francisco trip or visit the Aztec temples in Mexico.

On LH you only need to commute 4 or 5 times a month with the same number of departures and arrivals from Heathrow. Like all jobs there are downsides and frustrations as well, but as an individual you need to work out what your priorities are and then find a job where you will get the greatest percentage satisfaction to live your life.

Regards